Chewing your food

[cob]

Part of the evolutionary purpose of chewing is to make food easier to digest and metabolism, to extract what's in it. When I was a child, my health teacher said "Chew your food 24 times or until it's liquid before swallowing'

Does chewing food effect body weight through these kinds of principles (metabolic difficult, amount digested vs amount expunged)

Thoughts? Science?

[Corbab]

Your teeth and saliva are the first steps in a whole bevy of digestive processes that turn a cow into a calorie. Food goes down your throat much easier if you chew it (hopefully you've found that out on your own ), and enzymes in saliva begin breaking down whatever goes in your mouth. As far as I know, liquefying food has no benefits over regular chewing. You can blend a chocolate cake for as long as you want, but that doesn't mean it's going to be treated as anything other than flour, sugar, and eggs.

There have been a couple of "Chew every bite X times" diets, but their purpose is mindful eating—getting you to slow down and listen to your body's signals about when you've had enough. Also, it makes food taste gross, which is a definite disincentive to enjoying a meal.

[unicornassassin]

Your teeth and saliva are the first steps in a whole bevy of digestive processes that turn a cow into a calorie. Food goes down your throat much easier if you chew it (hopefully you've found that out on your own ), and enzymes in saliva begin breaking down whatever goes in your mouth. As far as I know, liquefying food has no benefits over regular chewing.

I think that I heard somewhere that chewing your food until it's in itty bitty pieces is more beneficial than regular chewing because (as you say Corbab) chewing is the first step in digestion, so if you chew your food really well, it's more easily digested once it gets to your stomach. So, if you have itty bitty pieces, that's easier on your guts than if you have chunkier pieces. That makes sense to me.